That's Good For You Rev
by zero13
Summary: A new vision for That's Good For You. Time moves more quickly within the Sea of Dirac, bringing about changes for Shinji and all those around him.


Obligatory official disclaimer

Then: Gainax isn't mine.  
Now: Gainax isn't mine, and it won't be anytime soon. I am allowed to make this piece after such a long period of time by their good graces of not suing everybody.  
This is a refined version of 'That's Good For You'. Let's call it Version 2 for the sake of making things easier for everybody here. Enjoy.

-That's Good For You-

'Are you sure that's what you want?'

'…yes…'

'Well, that's good for you.'

With those words; the faint blue light faded in front of Shinji. He then could clearly hear the sound of the entry plug emergency hatch being opened. The harsh light quickly came across his blue eyes, and the sounds of a Woman crying filling his ears.

"Shinji! Are you alright!" In between her desperate sobs, she cried out for him, blinded by her tears of joy, anguish, and relief.

'She's… Misato… is crying… for... for me?' With the hazy thoughts slowly coming to life within his mind, he felt Misato fall upon his and take him into a hug. However, when she fell upon his form, something was wrong.

Misato Gasped, "Wha, wha, huh?" Her crying abruptly stopped, tears still filling her, eyes she stood and backed up toward the plug hatch. She now regarded the form in front of her with a more serious, and yet shocked investigation. Another figure stood behind her, more slight in frame and oblivious to the Plug's current contents.

"Aren't you going to punish him now?" Remarked one Asuka Soryu. Misato turned around and flashed her a look that would kill if it could, this caused Asuka to take a step back in a rare show of surprise.

"Asuka, go… Get Dr. Akagi now…" Her words were low in tone, with the look of death in her eyes. "That's an order."  
  
For some, death is of no consequence.

"What did the baka…" Misato was going to give Asuka no quarter.

"NOW!" Asuka turned to run toward the temporary command center. Before the medical personnel could arrive at the entry plug, Misato sat at the edge of the hatch, in a stunned silence. Her mind still trying to grasp what was lying in front of her.

'She's not… crying anymore… she sounded, scared…' Shinji was still gathering himself, not knowing just what was going on. He kept trying to move around, but his body gave no sign that it wanted such a thing. 'What's… what's wrong?'

"Oh, my God… Shinji." Looking down at Shinji, she could tell it was still him, yet it wasn't. The blue and white plugsuit was torn, not from some sort of struggle, but the form that it held, seemingly outgrew it's fitting. Stretched in some areas, burst in others. Shinji was till laying half-naked in a pool of LCL. At least, what appeared to be an older version of Shinji. "It's… not possible… is it?"

Shinji caught this, he tried to form words, but his flooded lungs prevented it. He was barely coughing up the LCL from his lungs heaving them free of the putrid liquid, he spoke in a weak gargled voice "Mi-misato…" He kept trying to open his eyes, but he still couldn't get used to the ever-blinding light. "I, I can't…" Shinji coughed before he faded back into unconsciousness.

"The doctors are… are on their way… hang on." She was pale now, still sitting in the entrance to the hatch. Shock, overtook her as she then sat in wait for the good doctor. 

Sounds of personnel running toward the plug started filled the air as they approached. Dr. Akagi was at the front of the line. "Move it Major, you're in the way! What's going on…" Pulling Misato away from the open hatch making her way into the plug, "Oh my…" She gasped now seeing the figure, Shinji, in the plugs command chair who was now unconscious. "What, what the hell?" Dr. Akagi stood stunned for a few brief moments before regaining a panicked composure. "Get the Third Child out and into the secure infirmary now!"

--

"Does there appear to be any abnormalities that would adversely effect unit one?" Dr. Akagi now stood in front of the Supreme Commanders desk. He sat in his normal position, hands steepled in front of him. Although he was mildly surprised by the effect that the Angel had on the returned pilot, he did not show it, for in the end, he wasn't concerned.

"Yes and no. The initial tissue testing results from the MAGI show similar effects, in that it too has aged approximately 5 years 7 months and 165 days with an error of point zero-three percent." Gendo Ikari broke in.

"Will this affect Unit one in anyway? Or the Third Child's ability to pilot, Doctor?" A cold silence hung in the air; one that caught Ritsuko off guard.

"No sir. After a few days rest and some modifications to plug." She now glared at him, "The Unit and the Pilot will be fully functional again."

"Very well, you may return to your work." Dr. Akagi spun on one foot and quickly made her exit from the cavernous office, making her way back to the infirmary.

As the double doors closed behind her and she passed one of the two-armed guards at the door, her mind was spinning. 'He had all of the information in front of him. Does he even care about his own child?' A small voice in the back of her head responded, but she didn't want to believe it. 'He doesn't care for anyone.'

--

Misato was outside of the doors to the security wing. One of the few places in the normal NERV facilities she was not allowed to enter unless Dr. Akagi stated otherwise. She occupied one of the three chair sets that made up a quasi-waiting area. Her arms were crossed on her knees as she looked down at the floor. Allowing her lavender hair to obscure her vision around her as her thoughts consumed her.

'How?' The image of Shinji lying in the undersized chair, with his plugsuit torn, stretched and barely able to produce any kind of sound that would be called speech, remained in her mind. All the questions in her head were framed in that image. 'Why?'

"What is going on?" Misato whispered this out loud just as Dr. Akagi came around the corner.

"How long have you been here Major?" Surprising Katsuragi a little she turned to face her, responding with a voice mixed with sadness, anger, and fatigue.

"What happened? Is he still alive?" The major stood up to look the doctor in the eye. The red hand-mark was still visible from the 'altercation' between the two bitter friends. "How—"

"He's alive Misato." She cut off the still pale woman. "I'll take you to him. He's still in a recovery module though." Dr Akagi used her key card, an alphanumeric key pad, and voice identification for the Guard within the security wing to give her access. The two thick one-inch metal doors slid open revealing a hallway leading to a dimly lit room.

Only three rooms were within this area, each contained some of the most sophisticated medical equipment on the planet. The Doctor and the Major walked in to the middle of the room where the nurse's station resided. The guard and two Doctors were behind the desk. The room was a hexagonal. One door was behind the desk, two others were in the front on either side of the long entryway.

Misato had never been inside of this room. It was a dark room where the only bright light was coming from within the nurse's desk. The ceilings were slightly higher than a normal infirmary. Windows showed the contents of each of the rooms. The doors were just off to the left of the windows. The sliding alloy doors were red with white numbers on them. A door that was supposed to be marked 01 was open while the others were closed. While she looked the room over Dr Akagi looked over and signed various forms the two doctors on duty had handed her. The single Red beret'd guard continued to watch the security monitors. 

While the doctors were talking over the status of their patient; Misato began to walk over to the window that was in the very back of the room. The lights of that room were dimmed, though it looked to have the most equipment with monitors and illuminated graphs in it. Before she could reach the window. Dr. Akagi rested a hand on her shoulder, Misato hadn't noticed her come from behind, all of her attention was focused behind the window.

"Before I take you in there, there are some things I have to tell you." The Major turned to face the blonde haired woman. "Follow me." The doctor's 'order' thinly veiled the tension that was still present between the two. Though Misato was reluctant to move away from her target, the Doctor had answers to her questions. Ritsuko motioned toward the door that remained open and both women walked toward the darkened room. 

The Doctor paused on one side of the door and allowed Misato to enter. As she did the fluorescent lights illuminated what looked like a standard hospital room. A bed, a TV, a curtain, and a corner chair were present. Once Ritsuko followed the Major into the room she turned to close the door behind her. Misato watched and waited for her opportunity. The correct buttons were pressed, and the door slid closed and made a chirp and click sound as it locked in place.

"What happened Doctor?" The Major's voice was still yet still held her anger from that afternoon. All blame was placed on her 'friend'. "I saw Shinji, and can guess. But, I want to know exactly what happened, and I want to know how. Even if you don't know I want your best damned guess." Misato's right fist was clenched. None of this was lost on the doctor. Although, she had seen Katsuragi angered many times in their sometimes-tumultuous friendship.

"It was the sea of Durac." She replied with little fear.

"Huh? just what does that mean? What exactly happened to him!?" Misato allowed her emotions to betray her.

"Well I guess I have to spell it out for you." Ritsuko seemed to be taunting the Major. "Remember when I said the only to describe the Angel was through abstract mathematics?" 

"Yes, I was there for that." Misato's fist eased slightly.

"Good, well it would appear that the universe that the Angel created within its AT Field had a different timescale when compared to ours. Within that universe time moved at an accelerated rate. As you can see, the effects on Shinji show just that." Ritsuko paused, as though giving the Major to think everything through in her own mind.

"Well, then if time moved faster then he would have run out of power a hell of a lot sooner then we predicted…" Misato paused as she shuddered at the possibility of Shinji actually dying long before they could even rescue him, she continued, slowly "But the life support systems would have ran out long before we could reach him, just how did he survive?"

"That, I'm not sure. The initial tests I've run through the MAGI haven't come back with any conclusive results. However, even though he did somehow survive the stasis that he appears to have been in. It still doesn't explain how his body did not suffer absolute muscle atrophy." Ritsuko was staring off behind Misato toward Shinji. "We'll have to keep him here for awhile to run more tests when he wakes up, I've done all I can without him being conscious."

"Right." Misato was still glaring at the doctor "Just, how much did he… age?"

"Roughly five and a half years, this means that physically he's just over the age of 20." The lavender haired woman couldn't help but stand there in silence, disbelieving the information that she knew to be true, the evidence was lying in front of her hours before.

"My God—" Neither made another sound. Misato noticed movement in the room that was outside of the window. The two doctors were walking into Shinji's room, the lights from the other room cast more light onto the cold room. "What are they doing doctor?" Her distrust of her friend was still present.

"They're going to take him out of the module and put him in a normal hospital bed. He'll be conscious in a couple of hours. However, he'll have trouble moving from being in stasis and his rapid growth. I've already mapped out a therapy regiment for him that includes stretching, yoga, and some weight work. If he follows that he'll be as good as new." Ritusko noticed her friend still didn't look hopeful, her features had changed little since she came into the room. "Is there something else Mis—"

"I'm staying here while until he wakes up." Misato made her way past the doctor. Just as she opened the door, Ritsuko grabbed her elbow.

"I only did what I thought should be done Misato." The events and altercations of the day were wearing thin for both women. Misato let out a small sigh.

"So was I, Ritsuko. I understand." The doctor let go of her friend allowing the Woman to go watch and wait for her charge. The door to the room was closed while the Doctor's finished with Shinji. Ritsuko watched Misato observe her charge from the window.

'He doesn't care about him at all does he?' She walked over to join her friend to observe the process. The voice in the back of her mind came forward again.

'He cares for no one.'

-More to come-

After the long-hiatus, almost two years or so, I am returning to the project. However, since things are very different now, my frame of mind isn't in the same place as it was when I began. It is time for some re-invention and revision. I am re-writing all that was in That's Good For You. I know some who might still remember will want to know what happened to the old one, that will be preserved in it's original form. If that sort of thing interests you of course, if anyone sees any major grammatical errors, please let me know at zero@secction2.com . Also feel free to send any questions if you have any.

Take care,

_zero


End file.
